NO. LIVERMORE — At the April 20, North Livermore Baptist Church service, the congregation was welcomed in by Pastor Bonnie Higgins at 9:30 a.m. to begin the service. The Call to Worship was sung by the choir, and the Invocation and The Lord’s Prayer were recited. The hymn that was sung was “Christ the Lord is Risen Today.” The choir sang throughout the service. The service ended with “Go Now in Peace.” Linda Lyman is the organist, Janet Diaz is the pianist, and Lew Lyman leads the music for the congregation each week.

The sermon, “The Great Feast,” used scripture from Luke 14:15-24. Pastor Bonnie began by saying that Easter is a day of celebration and not of mourning for Jesus. As Jesus walked on this earth, He took every opportunity to tell people all about God’s kingdom. The reason God sent Jesus to earth to be born as a baby, minister to others, die on a cross, and be resurrected was to let us know that we were valuable to Him. As Jesus prepared to die, He said to His Father, “not my will, but thine be done.” Because of all that Jesus did, we should continue to seek out others and bring them to Him.

In this parable, we read how a certain man sent out invitations to “save the date” to many people; as the day of the banquet approached, some decided that they didn’t have time to attend. Is that you today? Too busy in your life to put God first? The man in this parable represents God. The invitation to salvation is great because of the great love that God has for each of us, and the sacrifice God gave in His Son for us to have salvation in Him.

The invitation He sends out is for all to come to Him at the table. The servant represents the Holy Spirit and the Church. As the parable states, the dinner is ready. In God’s invitation, nothing else remains to be done, the table is set, ready to consume. There is no cost to the meal, it is free to all those who answered yes.

The excuses people have not to attend grow each and every day. In the parable, we see that one person couldn’t make it because he had bought land and needed to go see it. Another person couldn’t come to the banquet because he had bought oxen and he wanted to test them. The last man declined because he had just gotten married and couldn’t come. We all come up with excuses to stay away from God.

How many times on a Sunday morning did you come up with an excuse to not attend church on Sunday morning? When you avoid answering God or do not listen to God, you are losing out on the blessings that God has for you. You may think that you had a great time, but in reality, God’s blessings are so much more valuable to you when you come and worship with other believers.

Sometimes, people give an excuse not to accept the invitation from God because they don’t consider God important in their lives. Other times, people don’t want to miss out on God calling them, but they don’t want to answer right away in case something else comes up. When God calls you to Him, you need to let go of this world and let God be God of your life.

During this Easter season, remember that God is calling, even the “host” told the “servant” to go out quickly, since there is no time but the present to follow Jesus. God’s door is open, the banquet is ready now, the table is prepared, and God is saying now is the time. Let us not “excuse ourselves right out of the kingdom of God ”

April 27: Pastor Bonnie was on vacation; Rev. Dr. Al Fletcher brought the message to the congregation.